What “hope” is to the Solomon islander—The use of the evil eye.
Sacred places in the Solomons are called hope, the word being used
in very much the same way as _tapu_ (taboo) is by the Maoris of New
Zealand, and other savage races, but, unlike the Maoris, the Solomon
islanders use “hope” to keep a place free from trespassers; thus if a
native has a cocoa-nut grove or a yam patch he erects a “hope,” and so
prevents any other native from going to it.
It is a strange custom and difficult to fathom, but the belief in it
is so strong that the most daring native would not dream of testing
its powers. There are various kinds of “hopes,” some will result in
the death of any one trespassing on them, whilst others will only
bring sickness upon him. A death “hope” will have a skull on it, or a
piece of shell, or part of an ant’s nest, and on seeing these signs
the intruder knows what to expect—that he will die as the man {135}
has died whose skull is there, or die as surely as the fish which once
lived in the shell has died, or as the ants which inhabited the nest.
A “hope” in which coral takes the place of the above objects announces
sickness to the trespasser.
A chief’s house and the grounds adjoining it are nearly always “hope,”
and only his wives are allowed to go into them, other intruders will
either die or fall sick. Certain animals and places are also “hope,”
and little altars are built on some of the small islands which make
them sacred. In fact, “hope” is a most extraordinary thing and can be
used in the most eccentric ways. I heard of one place which was once
“hope,” and yet had the “hope” taken away from it for no particular
reason. Then, again, crocodiles are in some parts “hope” and are not
allowed to be killed; but in one of the rivers where crocodiles abound
a youth was killed by them, and the chief took the “hope” off until the
boy’s father had slain a sufficient number to satisfy his anger, and
then back went the “hope.”
Another kind of “hope” was seen by Lieutenant B. T. Somerville, and was
made by putting a festoon of a certain creeper across the entrance to
a cocoa-nut grove, with pieces of the same material along it {136} at
regular intervals, hanging perpendicularly downwards and secured to
the ground. “I had two natives with me at the time,” he states, “and
at first they did not like to land on the islet bearing this mark as
it had been ‘hoped’ by their chief, Bera. They did land eventually,
however, and one of them went under the hope barricade, picked the
central tiny shoot of a large fern—in appearance like the English
hart’s-tongue fern—from which he nibbled a little bit, and then handed
it to the other man who did the same. They assured me that now the hope
would have no effect as long as they did not steal any nuts.”
There seem to be various methods of overcoming “hope,” the chief being
by a payment to the owner of it. He will extort what he considers a
sufficiently large sum of money to take away the ill effects which
would otherwise have followed if the “hope” had been scouted. “Hope”
altars are also built in various parts of the bush as a means of
warding off certain evil spirits. On these food and other things are
placed, such as broken pots, shells, old pipes, and worn-out musical
instruments, and the evil spirit dare not come near them.
[Illustration 45: A TAPU VIRGIN, BRITISH SOLOMON ISLANDS
At the launching of a new war canoe in New Georgia, two virgins are
taken from the tribe; one is publicly sacrificed, and the other kept
in seclusion from four to five years. During this time an old woman
acts as guard over her. Should she break the tabu she is put to
death. The skulls on the sticks are a sign to all that if they molest
her their heads will be stuck up in the same way. The object in the
background is a skull-box; the large necklace is of dogs’ teeth, and
the small necklet of spiral shell ground down; the ear-rings of pieces
of Tredacua.]
In spite of the fact that the white men scorn these “hopes” and do not
suffer any bad results, {137} it has in no way brought discredit
on them; the belief is quite as strong now as it ever was, but the
natives think that the white man is guarded by a special providence and
so cling to their belief.
There are many peculiar legends relating to monsters living in certain
parts of the bush country and on certain mountains and islands. One
tells of an enormous clam-shell which lives on the summit of Vonggi, a
mountain some sixteen hundred feet high covered to the top with thick
bush. If any native ventured near it the clam-shell would kill and eat
him.
Superstition and ancient custom make up the chief characteristics of
these natives, and though civilisation has made some difference in
their mode of living, they have not marched with the times as the
natives of some of the adjoining islands have. The men still think
it their duty to be ready for attacks and leave their wives to do
the work, and though the chances of sudden attack have practically
ceased and left them without employment, they have not taken up fresh
work. Even the natives who have returned from the sugar plantations
of Queensland, after their three years’ service, do not endeavour to
instil new ideas into their fraternity by example. They simply throw
off all signs of {138} civilisation and become as the others are,
or if anything lazier, but to these men and their term of service in
Australia I will devote a portion of the next chapter. It is no doubt
owing to the old days of slave traffic, or black-birding as it was
called, that the natives here are shy and backward.
Dr. Guppy mentions a peculiar incident relating to the superstitions
of the Solomon islanders regarding the power of thinking evil of a
person and so bringing disaster upon him. He says that when the natives
cut off locks of their hair for him, which he desired for scientific
purposes, they told him that if any sickness or calamity befell them
they would put it down to him.
The fear of evil wishing is very strong amongst them, and when they
are in mourning, and so have to shave their heads, they bury the hair
in order to prevent enemies getting hold of it. Thought transference
is no speculative theory with them, and they have the most unbounded
faith in its power where evil is concerned, but very few seem to think
it can be used for good. They also imagine that certain people possess
an evil eye or can conjure it up on occasions. They often put down the
death of a chief to an evil eye having been cast on him. This sometimes
results in an {139} unfortunate creature being picked out and killed
through suspicion having fallen on him or her. At other times, when the
supposed culprit has not been found, a terrible panic has taken place
and the whole village has been deserted and a new one built. The old
village then becomes “hope,” and no amount of persuasion will induce
the tribe to go back and settle in it, unless, as in one or two cases,
the “hope” is removed by some great chief or medicine man.
Medicine men here, as in most other places, hold unique positions, and
many a smart villain prospers owing to the belief that he has power
over the unseen—to kill or cure at will. Their houses are taboo or
“hope,” the same as a chief’s, and in many villages they are held in
far greater awe than the chief himself.
{141}
PART III
NEW HEBRIDES
[Illustration 46: BENEATH A BANYAN TREE, MALEKULA ISLAND, NEW HEBRIDES]
{143}
CHAPTER XIV
Islands that are advancing rapidly—Native houses with modern
improvements—A horrible method of getting rid of the old men, and
other burial ceremonies.
There is a remarkable difference between the natives of the New
Hebrides group and any of the inhabitants of the adjoining islands. In
character, disposition, mode of living and religion, they are in many
respects far ahead of their neighbours, and, strange to say, so are
the islands. The soil is better and the climate is more to the liking
of the European, and, owing to the proximity of the islands to Sydney,
they are better served and more up-to-date. Port Vila in Sandwich
Island, the chief centre, is only five days’ sail from that city.
Settlement in the New Hebrides has been going on for some time, and
the white population has nearly doubled itself within the last few
years. In 1901, the French residents and traders far out-numbered the
English, but to-day another tale is {144} told, and British enterprise
and power of colonisation have made a difference in this group; so
much so that they are hardly recognisable, and they only need careful
legislation to enable them to overcome the obstacles mentioned earlier
in this book.
Where dense, uncleared bush grew a few years ago in tangled confusion,
blocking out even the light by its thickness, acres of cultivated
ground can now be seen, which bring to their owners results worthy of
twice the toil that has been expended on them.
The Hebrides is a veritable paradise for the pioneer settler who loves
the wild freedom of island life and is not afraid of work.
A good deal of the prosperity of these islands is undoubtedly
owing to the strenuous efforts of the missionaries, the Australian
Government, and that gigantic trading firm of Messrs. Burns Philp,
who have established a monthly service of steamers, which call at all
the important islands to deliver and take away produce. Throughout
the South Seas they have trading stations, but in New Hebrides their
success has met with better returns than elsewhere, owing to the
greater number of settlers who have gone there and made their homes in
these beautiful islands.
[Illustration 47: THE RAPIDS, WILLIAMS RIVER, ISLAND OF EROMANGA, NEW
HEBRIDES]
{145}
The chief industry is, as in the Solomon Islands, copra, but coffee,
maize, tobacco, bananas, pineapples, and many other tropical products,
are being cultivated successfully, and each year shows some new advance
in agriculture; it is safe to say that before long these islands will
not be far behind the West Indies.
Another feature that has assisted the prosperity of this group is
the fact that those natives who have served their three years on the
plantations in Queensland have not gone back to idleness, as the
Solomon islanders have, but, in the majority of cases, have set to work
on a patch of ground of their own, from which they have earned good
money and so have assisted the prosperity of their country.
It is needless to say that with all these changes the ancient customs
of the natives are fast dying out, which in some cases is rather sad;
but, as may be supposed, in others it is a good thing, and the sooner
their worst ceremony, that of burying the old men alive, is wiped out
the better.
Even to-day, in Malekula, this custom, which has prevailed evidently
since the beginning of the race, is only kept alive by the old men; the
younger ones show an absolute distaste for it. {146} Directly a man or
woman shows signs of decrepitude or helplessness, those who are nearest
to that stage themselves tell him that his time has come, and that his
burial will take place on such and such a date.
On the arrival of the day, the grave for the intended victim is dug,
and, in front of a large crowd, the old man is led or carried to it—if
he be too weak to get into it himself. He is then stretched out at full
length, and, whilst incantations are sung, the earth is thrown over
him, and willing hands soon have the ground level and solid above him,
and the old man is left there to die. The spectators of this ghastly
scene then adjourn to a feast, which is to many of them the most
important part of the ceremony.
[Illustration 48: MOUNT MARION, THE ACTIVE VOLCANO, ISLAND OF AMBRYN,
NEW HEBRIDES]
In some cases the buried man has had sufficient strength left in him to
upheave the earth and rise out of his grave, and has even attempted to
join the feast, but he has been still considered dead, and no one has
given him food. If he be strong enough and can obtain food for himself,
he is buried again and again, until at last he has to die from pure
exhaustion, if nothing else. Should, however, a very tough customer
be met with, and it is found that he refuses to die, and each time
gets out of {147} his grave, he is strangled before being buried
again; for once his death sentence has been passed it must be carried
out—he is a dead man from that hour and nothing can save him. I may
add that directly the man is buried his property is divided amongst
the villagers, so that if he were allowed to come back he would be a
homeless wanderer, and no one would have anything to do with him.
In deference to the other islands it is only fair to state that
Malekula is the most savage one of the group. From a missionary point
of view the island of Tanna is perhaps the worst, as it is stated
that, after sixty years of labour on this island, the converts to
Christianity can all be counted on the fingers of two hands.
Aoba and Sandwich Islands are both beautiful spots and more favoured
than any of the other islands, when beautiful scenery is required.
There are two fine volcanoes, which add considerably to the interest
of the New Hebrides. One of them is at Ambryn, which almost rivals
Etna, and is generally belching forth fire and fumes and now and then a
heavy stream of lava, which makes it somewhat dangerous—as was proved
not a dozen years ago by an eruption there which played havoc with the
place, absolutely destroyed a whole {148} village, and discoloured the
sea for miles round. The roar of the other one at Tanna can be heard
quite distinctly at Port Resolution. One of the peculiarities is that
an eruption occurs systematically every five minutes, though it is not
a bad one. The walk to the volcano through the dense forest from Port
Resolution is very beautiful, and if one keeps on the weather side of
it, so as to avoid the fumes, a more enjoyable half-hour’s climb cannot
be found. On reaching the top the full view of the enormous chasm is
appalling, and the rugged, torn, and blistered sides, the curling
smoke and fumes, and the great gulf, present a picture rivalling our
worst ideas of the lower regions. The explosion which shakes the whole
mountain puts a finishing touch to the scene.
In spite of their more civilised condition the New Hebrides natives
are intensely interesting, owing to the fact that they can speak
English, and like to boast about their acquaintance with Englishmen
in Queensland, and therefore think it necessary to speak the English
language to show they have been there. This enables a visitor to get
information regarding their customs and ceremonies much more easily
than in the other groups.
[Illustration 49: A VILLAGE IN SANTO, NEW HEBRIDES
In the foreground are seated two men, the one on the left with a bow.
The women behind them have their heads shaved in the usual way, with
only a mane down the top of the head. On the ground are ordinary
native pots. The long poles in the thatch are for the purpose of
keeping it from being blown off, and the poles in front are a defence
against pigs and dogs, one of which is seen coming round the corner.]
The natives themselves, taking them as a whole, {149} are better built
and of a more striking appearance than those of the Solomon Islands.
They resemble more nearly the Fijian type than any of the inhabitants
of the sister islands.
A peculiarity most noticeable in the villages is that there is greater
cleanliness and order; the houses are mostly built in groups of four
or five, and are low, broad, barn-like huts in which you have to climb
up a few feet and down again in order to gain admittance to the living
rooms. They are built on the ground and not on piles, and each group is
surrounded by a coral wall on which are stuck long bamboo canes. These
take root immediately, as the wall is built when the coral is soft, and
present an interesting sight. The bamboo canes form a fine high fence,
which, unfortunately, in time totally obscures the houses.
A gap in the wall is left for the residents of these queer compounds to
pass backwards and forwards. Between the houses and the wall a large
cleared space is left where the pigs, the dogs, and the babies play.
The interiors of the houses are not quite as pleasant or artistic. The
whole place inside is blackened with smoke and soot, owing to the smoke
from the fire having no proper outlet. The {150} fire is usually lit
as near the door as possible, but as the doors are very low the smoke
has first to fill the room before it finds its way out. The thatch
being thicker than is usual there is very little room for escape in
that quarter. Bamboo is used chiefly to build the frames on which to
thatch the grass. Forked sticks of a stouter material bear the main
weight of the roof, flimsy bamboo canes are bent right over the ridge
pole about six inches apart, and secured to another stout pole near the
ground, lathes are then run across the bamboo and lashed to them with
fibre, and on this framework the outside of the house is made.
The floors are covered with mats on which the natives squat by day and
sleep at night. Screen mats also divide the interiors of the huts and
cut off the sleeping apartments. A few cooking utensils and worn-out,
soot-begrimed weapons are generally to be seen lying about, but beyond
these articles and the natives themselves, nothing else takes up any
room in these dark abodes.
Each island has its own particular way of building a house, and those
in Malekula are perhaps the best and most modern. Light is admitted to
them through a window at the back, which is boarded up at night or in
rough weather.
[Illustration 50: CHIEF’S HOUSE, AMBRYN, NEW HEBRIDES
Round these houses are dry-built stone or coral walls. I saw more huts
on this island encompassed in this way than on any other. The large
shell hanging from the pole is a sign of a tapu.]
{151}
The usual custom of natives to build near a fresh-water stream is not
carried out in the New Hebrides; they seem to object to fresh water and
seldom, if ever, drink it.
Occasionally they bathe in the sea; but here again they show a marked
difference to the other islanders, for they seldom swim except when
necessity compels them to do so, and so averse are they to water that
they will actually walk an extra half-mile to avoid having to wade or
swim through a creek.
The sanitary arrangements of the village are, of course, conspicuous
by their absence, and were it not for the crowd of dogs, pigs, and
fowls, no visitor could go near them. The work of the missionaries,
however, has done much to improve the home life of the natives, and in
many villages their influence shows itself in the better construction
of the houses and the greater neatness of the villagers; and much
as the searcher after “original conditions” might object to these
improvements, he must declare that from an artistic point of view, if
from no other, these villages surpass those where the missionaries have
not been able to make headway.
The blending of savage ideas and European {152} methods makes a
quaint and interesting picture. A thatched squat native house with a
neat coral path is infinitely better than the muddy, sloppy places of
the past, and a hut where one can see when inside it, and where one
is not blinded by the smoking fire, is surely much better than one in
its native condition, smoke-begrimed and smelling, however natural its
former condition was.
The tambu houses are more carefully constructed here, and are thatched
with banana leaves. They are of course much bigger than the living
houses, and are to be seen close to the dancing grounds in each place.
In them are kept all the accessories to the dances, for dancing
plays a more important part in the life of the New Hebridean than it
does elsewhere, and very elaborate grounds, houses, and regalias are
used. But this side of the life we will leave for another chapter,
as to understand it a further insight into their other ceremonies is
necessary.
{153}
CHAPTER XV
Ancestor worship the religion of the New Hebrides—Temples and strange
figures, and some sacred dances.
Ancestor worship was undoubtedly the original religion of the New
Hebrideans, and in many islands the present form of worship is based
upon it. According to Mr. Macdonald, a resident in Exate, the followers
of it believe that after death the soul passes through six stages
before it finally dies. When its earthly life is over it goes to the
gate of Hades, which is situated at Tukitaki, at the western extremity
of the island. Here it meets Seritan the cannibal executioner, and his
two assistants Vanas and Maxi. Certain questions are then put by them
to the soul, and if it does not answer them satisfactorily it is passed
on to Maseasi, who cuts out its tongue, splits its head open, and
twists it back. If the questions asked by these officials at the gate
are well answered, then the {154} soul is permitted to go on in peace
through its various stages.
Seritan in olden days was a noted cannibal chief, hence his work now in
Hades seems particularly suitable to his past experience. This idea of
the hereafter has a faint resemblance to the Maori beliefs; they hold
that there are certain stages to be gone through, and the same belief
of questions being asked is adhered to—though their final end, if they
be worthy men and true, is not annihilation, as far as I could gather
from the older chiefs, but a life of pleasure.
The trouble is, however, that they have undoubtedly got their ideas
mixed up—a fault one finds with nearly all the savage races of to-day.
In Efaté there are certain classes of people who are allowed to pass
unquestioned into Hades—those belonging to the Namtaku tribe, and
others who have certain figures carved on their bodies. Why they don’t
all go through this operation and escape the chance of having their
necks broken is a mystery, but they are not the only believers in
certain religious rites who do not bother about testing them.
[Illustration 51: THE “M’AKI” GROUND AND THE JAWS OF THE SACRED PIGS,
NEW HEBRIDES]
Modifications of the above belief are also held in other islands,
and in Malekula it is supposed {155} that three stages only are gone
through before the perfect spiritual condition is reached, and that the
soul then fades away into nothingness.
The sacred men of these islands will tell you that they periodically
visit the first stopping-place of the departed souls, and they say
it is a long way under the ground. In this place all the important
affairs of the world are discussed and arranged, and it is from here
that the spirits work and punish those who do not follow the dictates
of the sacred men. These priests or sacred men in this way have gained
a tremendous control over their fellow-men, for superstition is strong
and no native dare disobey a sacred man.
Sacrifices of pig and other foods have to be made to inhabitants of the
under world, and feasts are laid out for them, which they are supposed
to devour when no one is near—a spiritual feast, so spiritual, indeed,
that none but those who believe in these things can see the slightest
signs of any of the food having been touched. Such incredulity,
however, has no effect on the natives, they look at you in a pitying
way when you infer that the food has not been touched—such is belief.
In connection with their religion certain peculiarly shaped stones
are denominated sacred and {156} are said to contain the spirits of
departed relatives. In the case of a chief the stone is placed in a hut
to preserve it from rough weather, and round it are arranged effigies
of the chief, and perhaps of one or two of his nearest relations.
These images, or demits as they are called, are ghastly looking things,
and when one comes suddenly up against them their full horror is
apparent. After death the chief is decapitated and the skull is cleaned
and bleached, and then, with a preparation of clay and fibre, a face
representing his, as it was while he was alive, is modelled on the
bare skull; his peculiarities in feature are emphasised to a degree
bordering on caricature, but they are not meant as caricatures, but are
intended only to bring back to the beholders the characteristic points
of the chief’s face.
[Illustration 52: A MEMORIAL EFFIGY, MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES
This figure represents a departed chief who has gone to the under
world and become a “Demit.”
The figure is made on a framework of wood or bamboo, covered with clay
and vegetable fibre. The head is the real skull of the chief covered
in the same way as the body with real hair and beard; the arms, round
which are pigs’ tusks, are made from a small plant, the root forming
the hands. One of the reasons the natives have for making figures in
this way is that the chief may still be able to look upon his friends.
At the side of the figure is a bundle of sacred pigs’ jaws; in front
is a priest.]
The body of the effigy is built up on a framework of wood, and covered
with the same preparation of clay and fibre and modelled in a like
manner, but, as a rule, it is seriously out of proportion. When this
imitation body is finished it is coloured in three shades, red, black,
and white (sometimes blue is found on them, but as the natives are
unable to obtain this colour naturally it is only used where the
traders can supply it). Down the trunk of the body long stripes are
made, running {157} vertically or horizontally, and round the legs
bands of these alternate colours are painted. The shoulders and knees
are decorated with grotesque faces, surmounted by tufts of fibre which
often rise to a distance of three or four inches. A bamboo cane is
stuck in each of these tufts, and on the top of it splendid specimens
of boars’ tusks are sometimes to be seen.
The hands of these idols are made from the roots of a sapling, and add
to the weirdness of the picture. Bracelets of boars’ tusks are also
found on some of these effigies.
Other sheds and places of worship contain somewhat different things.
The sacred stone is guarded by nude wooden figures of men and women,
cut in the roughest style and free from ornament. The posts holding up
the shed have also elaborate figures of strangely misshaped heads with
shapeless bodies attached.
But to the more important part of their religion. In every village
there is a “sing-sing” ground laid out—this is the slang term for
it, but it is appropriate. These grounds are kept for dancing, not
the frivolous dancing of the Europeans, but a sacred, awe-inspiring,
religious ceremony. The very idea of frivolity seems wrong in such a
place. {158} The cleared space is surrounded by a dense, dark bush,
and on the edge of the clearing high wooden posts slanting in various
directions are stuck into the ground. These drums, for such they are,
are grotesque things, standing from four to six feet high, with a dark
slit down the centre, and a fearsome face carved on the front; some are
all face and look like terrible nightmares, and each has behind it a
carved stone.
Picture yourself on one of these grounds on a warm moonlight night,
when a dance is to take place. Dense clouds are rolling over the sky
and now and then obscuring the moon or sending fitful shadows across
the bare space; beyond is black bush so thick that it looks like a
weird inferno. You wait and listen, and hear nothing but the roar of
the distant volcano. Presently a crowd of stark naked natives make
their appearance and take up their position each by the side of a drum,
and begin a dull beating noise to call the dancers. In the centre of
the ground is a circle of five or six white poles, some thirty feet
long, bent and crooked and leaning all ways.
[Illustration 53: DRUM GROVE AT MELE, NEW HEBRIDES
These drums are made of large tree-trunks, burnt out in the centre
through the long slot down the middle; both the slot and the round
openings are sound-holes. The meaning of the designs on the drums is
unknown. A heavy round drum-stick of wood is used. Every one of the
drum-groves I have seen appeared to be haunted by an old man or two.
Round the drums the “M’AKI” ceremony takes place.]
When deserted these “sing-sing” grounds are uncanny enough, but on a
dance night they are worse, and when the drumming commences, which
{159} sounds as if it came from the bowels of the earth, and makes
the flesh of your back feel as if it wanted to come off, the climax
is reached. You become chock-full of the supernatural, and would not
be in the least surprised if the earth opened up and the dancers
appeared amidst flames and smoke. Nothing quite as bad does happen,
but, presently, lights are seen flashing in the bush, and dark objects
holding torches come out and calmly take up their position in the
circle, till nearly a hundred human beings, naked save for paint and
streamers, are moving about.
Suddenly the drumming noise changes to a sort of tattoo, and then a
file of men line up and begin to keep time to the drums with their
feet; slowly at first, and then faster and faster till the very earth
shakes, and the dull thudding echoes through the dark bush. Then a
savage song is heard, a low chanting, and the men begin to whirl round
and round the posts till the eye becomes glazed and the flickering
light from the torches conjures up a thousand things that never happen,
but the drumming, monotonous beating of those wooden images goes on
and the tapping of the feet. The crowd of women over by the bush stand
watching in an almost hypnotic state, their bodies swaying {160}
unconsciously to the beating of the drums and the feet—black naked
women with vermilion-coloured faces, and white, staring, rolling eyes
watching every movement of the dance. Then a sudden dying away of the
drums and the shuffling of the feet and silence. It is weird indeed.
The women step forward, it is their turn now, and a wild scene
commences. More weird and more noisy than ever. Their shrill voices,
mingling with the thumping of the drums and the gruff monotones of the
men, make the bush resound. This is kept up for a long time, and then
suddenly they all rush off and the place is left in darkness.
On the morrow a big feast is held and the chief kills the sacred pigs.
The ceremony attached to this is worth seeing, as it is one of those
customs that are so time-worn that both their significance and original
meaning are lost and only the outward ceremony remains. For this the
natives are highly decorated with flowers and paint, and their frills
and plumes are extra well attended to. After a few preliminary canters
round the dancing ring to drive away the evil spirits, the chief and
sacred men appear, carrying spears. To the accompaniment of drums these
worthies pirouette round the ground. When this exercise is finished
a band of {161} natives face them and sing a wild song. Girls next
appear before the chief, highly be-plumed and be-feathered and with
faces stained bright red. They in their turn dance and sing. Next comes
the procession composed of men only, who carry the pig, which, like
Paddy’s, has a string tied to its leg in case it tries to get away.
The procession goes round the whole circle while the drums are beaten
in a quick tattoo—the squeals of the pig do not in the least affect
these stolid drummers, who ever keep time and never smile. At last,
when the circle is complete, the pig is cast at the feet of the chief,
who spears it with much gusto and then flings the spear away. The pig
is sometimes properly killed afterwards, but it is not considered
necessary. It is then carried away to where the spear, thrown by the
chief, has fallen. This is the way the pig is sacrificed to the sacred
stone. Each stone has to have its pig, so the killing goes on until the
right number has been slain. Then comes the cooking of all the dead
and dying grunters, and the biggest feast of the season is commenced.
So fat is the feast that at least half-a-dozen of those taking part
in it have to be removed and rubbed down by their comrades, or the
women-folk, to save them from death from over-gorging. {162}
There are many other ways of performing these dance and pig ceremonies,
and each island, in fact each village, varies the performance, but
they all begin with a dance and end with a feast, which is the usual
programme for savage functions.
[Illustration 54: LEAVING SANTO, A VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS, NEW
HEBRIDES]
{163}
CHAPTER XVI
Concerning witchcraft—More about burials—The gentle art of making
love—The rain-makers.
Superstition and witchcraft are strongly in evidence in the New
Hebrideans, and the natives have more than their share of both. Besides
those things to which I have already alluded, there is a peculiar
idea held in some of the islands that certain sacred men have the
power of killing by witchcraft. The method adopted by them is similar
in many respects to the usual custom, that of making an image of the
man or woman whose death is required, and then doing to it what it is
wished shall happen to the original. In the island of Tanna the method
differs slightly, for here, instead of an image being made, part of
the person’s property is stolen and taken to the sacred man who works
destruction to its late owner, but he must have this property in his
possession, or his maledictions will fail. {164}
The sacred men who are supposed to possess these powers are called
Narak-burners, and they hold their position through being the
possessors of certain stones known as Narak stones, which they, or
their fathers, have at some time found and buried in the vicinity of
their house. Some of these stones are in the British Museum and show no
signs of anything supernatural about them, but the natives hold them in
great dread and reverence.
When a man desires the death of any one, he visits the Narak—he may
only desire to give him a disease, but it is usually death he is after
when calling on the Narak-burner—and brings with him some hair or food
or some particle of clothing belonging to the man he wishes shall
suffer. This he presents to the Narak, who doctors it up and then wraps
it in leaves and burns it over a sacred fire, lit, it is presumed, over
or near the place where the Narak stones are hidden. As the article
begins to burn, so sickness falls upon the owner, who goes on getting
worse until the article is completely turned to ashes; then death comes.
[Illustration 55: A SACRED MAN, AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES]
Such is the superstition, but of its power I cannot speak. A large
payment of shell-money {165} or pigs has to be made to the Narak-burner
before he starts his work, and if a man hears that his effigy is being
thus dealt with, or fancies it is because he feels sick, he will hurry
off to the “burner” and offer him a bigger price for his freedom than
his enemy has paid for his death. The result of this may be guessed,
and a keen bidding often results; if he be rich he is allowed to live,
but a poor man has no chance.
It is through the fear of Narak burning and evil wishing that the
natives bury their hair when they cut it off, and also take care never
to leave any half-finished food about. They throw all their refuse
into a stream of water, which it is believed removes the power of the
Narak-burner.
There are so many quaint ceremonies connected with the lives of these
natives that a whole volume might be devoted to them alone; and even
then to deal with them all thoroughly the volume would have to be
a big one. In this book I only intend touching on the outskirts of
those which affect their lives most closely, and even then many of the
details must be left out, partly because they can only be explained in
a scientific work, and partly because they are so intricate. The whys
and the wherefores would lead into endless paths. {166}
If a native is rich, the first way he shows it is by changing his name,
and, as in England, money has to be spent for this privilege; in the
New Hebrides it means a feast, and a big one at that. On announcing his
desire for a new name to the chief, and proving that he has the means
of paying for it, the native goes away by himself for a few weeks,
during which time he is considered “duli” and is not allowed to see a
woman, and only permitted to eat certain things, as in the case of the
New Guinea natives when they become _ibito_.
After his seclusion he is known by his new name, and attends the big
religious feast which he himself has provided.
Other ways are found for changing names, and certain natives are
rewarded for their bravery and good deeds by being given a new one, in
much the same way as a man is knighted in England.
The marriage laws are similar to those in the other islands; and pigs
are often given to the parents in exchange for their daughter. The
girl being chosen more often for her working capabilities than for her
beauty.
The burial ceremony and disposal of the corpse vary considerably in
the different islands, but since the introduction of Christianity they
are changing {167} to the ordinary Christian burial. In _Oceania_
the author says that in old days “In Efaté the body was carefully
prepared for burial and then dressed. The burial was accompanied with
much solemnity, and great wailing, and animals were slain in sacrifice
to the dead at the grave. It was supposed that the spirits or essence
of the animals slain would accompany the souls of the deceased to the
spirit-world, the entrance to which was the westermost point of Efaté,
at a place called Takituki.”
“In Malekula,” says Lieutenant Boyle T. Somerville, “a sort of mummy is
made, of which specimens were brought to his ship by a white trader,
who had procured them in exchange for a rifle at the conclusion of a
‘sing-sing.’ They are said to be the effigies of the chief, whose skull
(the only portion retained of all his remains) formed the head. This is
plastered with mud to represent a living face, a body of bamboo twigs
and mud, highly coloured in black, white and red and purple stripes,
forms the figure. On each shoulder a highly conventional face is
moulded, looking to right and left respectively, and in each hand is a
pig’s lower jaw.”
During Mr. Hardy’s travels in these islands, he came across a kind of
graveyard where chiefs were {168} supposed to be buried underground,
and a heap of stones and rocks marked the spots where they lay.
The skull-huts, already alluded to, show that this is still another
form of burial—they are innumerable.
Rain-making is almost as universal as feeding, and every race has its
rain-maker, who, for a consideration, will tap the cloudless sky and
bring torrents of water down to quench the thirst of the dry earth. In
the New Hebrides the rain-maker goes into the forest and there collects
the branches of a certain tree, which he cuts into lengths and lays a
dozen or so of them parallel to each other. He then takes another dozen
and threads them through the parallel ones, forming a kind of flat
basket-work hurdle. Over this contrivance he mutters prayers, and then
buries it in a dried-up creek where the water should be running.
More incantations follow this proceeding, and then heavy stones and
rocks are placed over the rain producer, and the inhabitants all wait
for the rain, which, strange to say, generally comes.
[Illustration 56: THE STONE “DEMITS,” OR THE SOULS, WITH THEIR
ATTENDANT WOODEN FIGURES, MALEKULA ISLAND, NEW HEBRIDES.]
There is no lack of faith in these natives, and when once they have
applied to the rain-maker they set to work to make preparation for
the rain, which reminds me of an amusing anecdote I heard in {169}
America. In Belmont there had been a tremendous drought, and the
farmers were in such a fright that they unanimously decided to appoint
a certain day on which rain should be prayed for. On the Sunday chosen,
the farmers, their wives, and families rose early and started off to
church. Just as one party were leaving home a little child of five or
six years old suddenly sprang down from the buggy and cried out for
them to wait a minute, as she disappeared into the house. Every one
wondered what was the matter, and presently, when the child appeared
carrying a great big carriage umbrella, they all burst into roars of
laughter. “Why,” said the father, “you silly child, there’s not a cloud
in the sky.”
For a moment the child looked perplexed. “But, daddy,” she said in a
tone of wonder, “aren’t we going to pray for rain?”
The natives of the New Hebrides are very much like this little girl,
and perhaps their faith brings about the results they desire. Who
knows? Sometimes, however, they get more than they desire.
One writer gives an amusing description of what happened in 1890, at
Ambrym, an island adjoining Malekula, when rain was asked for.
“Make us rain,” said the natives to the {170} rain-maker, “or our yams
will not grow and we shall starve.”
The wise man consented, and after the machine, described above, was
duly placed in a dry water-hole, the rain came down in torrents and
did not cease for forty-eight hours. It was so severe that the entire
surface of the harbour was fresh to the depth of three or four inches;
and the water-hole, where the machine had been placed, had ten feet of
water in it; whilst the yams in the plantation were being literally
washed out of the ground. So great was the consternation of the
natives that they were beside themselves with fear, and rushing to the
rain-maker implored him to stop the rain. This, however, was no easy
task, as the old man explained, because his machine was buried under
ten feet of rushing water. Being unable to dive he could not get it
out, and until it was fished out the rain would continue. The scene can
be better pictured than described. At last in desperation the aid of
the shore natives, who are good divers and swimmers, was sought, and
soon the machine was brought out of the creek, and the rain stopped
immediately afterwards.
The most remarkable thing about these and like superstitions is that
more often than not they come {171} off as the sages predict they
will; and when once one does there is no longer any room for doubt, in
the minds of those who wish to believe. That incident of rain-making
in 1890 will be talked about for years, and the name of the rain-maker
will be handed down to future generations.
{172}
CHAPTER XVII
Native clothing and ornaments—Their arts and industries, their canoes
and weapons, and their way of fishing.
In Malekula, Efaté, and Tanna the natives wear as many adornments and
cram as many ornaments on their bodies as they can, and since this
weakness of theirs has been found out, both visitors and missionaries
trade on it, when endeavouring to get on the right side of them.
Everybody going to these places nowadays takes with him a good supply
of trumpery adornments, and exchanges them for native things of ten
times their value. Ivory rings and shell rings were the most precious
ornaments the New Hebrideans originally wore, but the less wealthy
covered themselves with armlets, fibre belts, flowers, and if they
could get a comb to stick in their hair they fancied themselves
immensely superior to those who had not such a mark of distinction.
Trade beads are now added to their possessions, and they work them into
most artistic {173} patterns and wear them round their necks. A
small mirror will often be seen hanging from a native’s ear-ring, and
many other strange combinations of savagedom mixed with civilisation
are met with in these islands to-day. A native wearing a calico
loin-cloth and a top-hat poised on his woolly head and kept in position
by a string round his chin is not an uncommon sight. Another may be
seen wearing a pair of knee-breeches, a tennis shirt, with the collar
turned up, and a trader’s hat. Another, perhaps dispensing with the
breeches, will wear only the hat and shirt. Altogether they seem to do
their very best to imitate an English clown, though of course they are
not aware of the fact.
[Illustration 57: OLD CANNIBAL CHIEF WHOM THE ARTIST MET ON THE ISLAND
OF AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES.]
To meet a burly native with elaborate ear-rings, an ivory spike through
his nose, and his face well marked, with a collar and dickey hanging
round his neck, seems absolutely ridiculous, but the proud possessor
of such a costume will strut about as if he were the best-dressed
man in the islands. As may be supposed they look particularly coy,
some of them, and only require a banjo and a pair of trousers to make
ideal Christy Minstrels. The humour of their costumes, needless to
say, does not strike them, and their less-clothed neighbours look on
them with envy, whilst the girls bill and coo at the {174} sight of
them—such is fashion. A tappa loin-cloth, similar to the Fijian cloth,
was originally the fashion amongst the women in parts of this group of
islands, prior to the coming of the white man, and it was held round
the waist by a belt of fibre and ornamented with coloured or stained
grass. But, back in the bush, the married women were the only ones
who wore anything that could be really called a costume, the younger
women’s attire being only flimsy grass mats made of streamers, and tied
round their waists—which from a point of decency would be equal to a
piece of mosquito netting. The men were always clothed to a certain
extent, owing to a peculiar belief they hold that they must not be seen
naked.
Feathers play a prominent part in head dress on special occasions, such
as at the dance I have already mentioned. The hair is never shaved off
the men’s heads but left to grow wild, and some of them possess very
fine beards and moustaches, but all cannot boast such growth. I have
seen a good few with moustaches like boarding-house tooth-brushes.
Tattooing is not common, but cicatrices are, and most men bear curious
marks on their bodies. These are made when they are quite young by
cutting a pattern on the skin and then continually {175} removing
the scab until a deep kind of scar is formed. It takes a long time to
become perfect, but when it is they are exceedingly proud of it.
[Illustration 58: TYPE OF MAN FROM THE ISLAND OF TANNA, NEW HEBRIDES]
Paint is sometimes used for decorating their faces and bodies in
place of tattooing, but it is very ugly and disfigures both the men
and women. Red, black, and white are the chief colours used, and no
particular design characterises the work; the painter generally puts
what his fancy suggests, and no meaning is attached to it, as is
generally the case with the native markings.
The women are the workers here as elsewhere, and at basket-making and
mat-plaiting they are splendid hands. Clothes used to be made by them
and bartered for food to villagers on the coast. The mats are made from
fibre, which in its turn is made from the pandanus leaf by cutting it
into long shreds with a piece of shell and then allowing it to dry.
Most of the mats have some sort of a pattern on them, and are now
greatly prized by collectors. In the New Hebrides they are put on the
floor of the huts, and are also used as screens to cut off the sleeping
apartments from the day room. Some more artistic than others are
fringed with feathers or tassels of discoloured grass. These, however,
are generally made to sell to the tourist. {176}
Baskets are also manufactured in some of the islands. Pottery, however,
is a forgotten art here, and a legend accounting for the number of
old and broken pieces which may still be found in the bush is worth
relating.
The natives believe that their islands at one time in the world’s
history were brought up out of the sea by a beautiful goddess, Li Maui
Tukituki; they say that when the world was quite new she was carrying
home some water in jars, but, owing to the rocky state of the land she
spilled the water, which made her so angry that she threw the jars at
the ground and in that way punished it and made it still. From that day
to this it has not moved. So tradition says, and these broken pieces of
pottery are known as the water jars of Li Maui Tukituki and are held in
great reverence by the natives.
[Illustration 59: FINISHING OFF A CANOE, BRITISH NEW GUINEA]
The tools used for hut-building and canoe-building are made of stone,
shell, and iron, but there are very few of the real stone adzes to be
found now, except in the museums, as the trade articles have taken
their place and are in use all over the islands. Exactly the same
kind of canoe is made here as in New Guinea, and the same methods of
making it are adopted. The largest canoes are made in Malekula, from
whence the natives go {177} long voyages to trade with other
islands, and, I suppose, in the old days went hunting heads; some of
the canoes are made out of the trunks of the bread-fruit trees. The
poles supporting the outrigger are run through holes in the side of the
canoe and lashed into position. There are no fine lines in the curves
of these boats, they are roughly made and have very little decoration
about them. The outrigger itself is just a heavy log of wood pointed at
each end.
The sails of the larger boats are now made of trade canvas, though they
were originally made of matting. The rowers or paddlers sit in the boat
upon the cross beams of the outrigger poles which pass through the
gunwale. The steersman sits right aft, and can swing the boat round
with marvellous rapidity.
On Rano, a little island near Malekula, are three or four very fine
specimens of large war canoes lying on the beach. I mention this, as it
has been said by many writers, who have visited these parts, that the
New Hebrides natives never possessed large canoes, whereas these are
far larger than any in the Solomons, but, judging by their appearance,
they have not been in use for ages and ages, nor can the natives
there tell anything of their history. {178} There is, of course, a
possibility that they may have been stranded there in a storm, but it
is not likely, as the stern of one of them is protected by a shed,
which looks as if it had always been its resting-place, also, the
whole construction is of the Hebridean style. The larger of the two is
considerably over thirty feet from stem to stern, and the bow rises up
to a height of over ten feet, and is made of a solid dug-out log curved
and tapering off to a point, where evidently a figure-head of some sort
has been, but now only a rudimentary bird’s head remains, and suspended
from the bird’s neck are a pair of boar’s jaws.
The boat prow is ornamented and boxed and laced with sinnet. The depth
inside allows more room than is usually found in like structures, and
to get this depth the sides have been built up by lacing planks to each
other in a curious and ingenious way. The crew to man one of them must
have consisted of thirty or forty men at the very least. The stem of
the canoe is a high peaked one, curving gently outwards and elaborately
carved.
The outrigger is an enormous log, and is attached in the ordinary way,
though, of course, owing to its great size, nearly a dozen pegs help to
keep the poles in position.
[Illustration 60: OLD WAR CANOES, NEAR MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES]
{179}
Though reliable information regarding these relics cannot be obtained,
it is evident that they are highly prized, as periodically they are
covered with freshly fallen leaves to keep the sun from warping them.
They are evidently the last of their kind, and show signs of having
been occasionally used as sailing canoes with a great mat sail,
probably after the style of the smaller craft of similar construction
often seen around Pentecost Island. Rano Island, where these boats are,
is a pretty little place with a fine beach running up on one side to a
densely wooded shore. The village lies back behind a line of scrub, and
is completely hidden from the view of the sea. This method of building
villages is common in the New Hebrides, and is done to enable the
inhabitants to get the first sight of an attacking party.
The weapons of war used by these islanders differ in many respects from
those in the other groups. Here the bow and arrow play a conspicuous
part in warfare and in hunting. The bows are between six and eight feet
long on some islands, whilst at Malekula they are seldom more than five
feet; most of them are very roughly made, neither the manufacturers nor
owners seemed to mind if the curve of the bow was exact or not. {180}
But in Malekula, again, both the workmanship and artistic taste are
more advanced.
The arrows are similar all over the group, and measure about three feet
in length; they come to a sharp point at the end, which is charred to
make it harder. They are each composed of a piece of hard wood pointed
at the end, about a foot long, let into a cane shaft and bound at the
junction with grass.
On Aoba Island the points of the arrows are very long and are composed
of sharpened human bone. It was the custom in the old days to poison
the arrows before use, but what method was adopted is not known,
possibly they were dipped in rotten fish or human flesh, the favourite
method of many savages.
The arrow used for fishing is a much longer one and has three prongs,
others of different design are used for shooting birds.
[Illustration 61: HAVANNAH HARBOUR, RATHMOY, NEW HEBRIDES]
Fish, birds, and a few small animals form the only wild diet for
which hunting is necessary. Neither lines nor hooks are used in the
New Hebrides for fishing, they scorn this method, in spite of the
demonstrations by the whites, and the greater chance they would have of
securing big catches. Sometimes, however, they use a small hand-net,
but {181} only for small fish, and they are not keen on its
use. They stick to their spears, and as a rule they choose a bright
moonlight night when the tide is going out, and armed with spears, bows
and arrows, they crowd down to the reefs with torches, and dart in and
out of the pools where fish are sure to be; then, with a sharpness that
is almost incredible, the spears are seen to dart into the water, and
come out again an instant after with fine, struggling fish on them. It
is great sport, and there is little wonder they enjoy it. Both sight
and feeling are brought into play during this pastime. The large fish
can be seen and are speared easily, but others which just skim past
the fisher’s legs are not as quickly taken, and try the skill of the
natives. Others occasionally need a deal of chasing, for once a native
has felt his prey he will not rest until he has secured it. He seems to
be untiring, and does not stop fishing until he has quite a good haul.
Turtle fishing is not gone in for much, as the natives are
superstitious about the turtle, and civilisation has not yet been
able to dispel their fears. One of the chief ones is that the eggs
are sacred and may not be eaten. But one by one their superstitions
are going, for they see how the {182} white man prospers in spite
of scorning all their sacred ideas, and that now and then makes
them courageous enough to break through the barrier, and when once
a superstition has been found untrue, they are not slow in testing
another, if by challenging it they can see any gain for themselves.
[Illustration 62: PASSING THE REEF, AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES]
{183}
CHAPTER XVIII
The cultivation of copra—The labour traffic; when slavery really
existed, and the traffic in natives of to-day.
Copra is the staple industry of the New Hebrides, as they say in the
geography books, but the output of it is about as reliable as the
rainfall, for the supply depends not, as might be expected, on the
demand, but on the whim of the natives; if they feel industrious, or
are hard pressed for tobacco and provisions, they will go into the bush
and bring in a sufficient quantity to meet their needs; but as a rule
they will only collect it from their own particular trees near their
village and will not go far afield, where they could get double the
amount for half the labour.
Cocoa-nut palms grow in patches all over the islands, and particularly
along the coast, and they make a charming picture viewed from the sea,
with their swaying trunks, and the quaint cluster of leaves at the
top: storm-tossed as they are, owing to {184} being top-heavy, they
all lean in one direction, the way the wind blows strongest, and give
the islands a wild appearance. The rustle of their leaves as one walks
beneath them makes a strange noise, and the falling of the nuts on a
windy day is a thing one has to be careful to avoid, as a good-sized
nut would seriously injure, if not kill, the person on whom it fell.
I have seen a natural grove of these trees nearly a mile long; the
dark stems and sage-green leaves against a blue sky, a bright yellow
road underneath which scintillated in the sun, and at its far end was
all blurred by the heat which rose as heat does from a stove making
everything quiver, presenting a beautiful picture not easily forgotten.
All along the coast of Malekula and Tanna the cocoa-nuts grow in
abundance. At Samari, New Guinea, there is one giant tree standing by
two others and away from the rest, the height of which has been the
means of many a sovereign changing hands. For the first thing a new
chum, fresh trader, or captain is asked is to guess its height, and few
ever guess it correctly, for a more deceptive-looking tree was never
born. It grows just behind the village and towers over everything, and
is a landmark that guides many a wanderer by land and sea.
[Illustration 63: THE ISLAND OF SAMARI, BRITISH NEW GUINEA]
{185}
The copra trade is of course carried on all over these and the
adjoining islands, but one sees more of it going on in the New Hebrides
than in the Solomons or New Guinea.
Copra is the white of the cocoa-nut and is not eaten by the natives at
all; all they do with the nuts is to drink the milk and use the fibre.
Nearly everything out there is made either of the leaves or fibre,
and even the trunks of the tree come in very handy for manufacturing
articles. When gathering copra the natives scale the trees to get at
the nuts, and having collected a good supply they sit down, break them
open, and lay them out to dry in the sun.
The oil of the cocoa-nut is chiefly made in England and America,
and the only process the nut goes through in the islands is that of
drying. When the nuts have been collected they are split in halves very
carefully with an axe, and then the halves are laid out in the sun.
Very soon the heat loosens the kernel, which comes away and is then
broken up into pieces. It is again put in the sun on mats, where it
remains until it is thoroughly dried; then it is collected in sacks and
sold by weight. Some traders, however, go in for making cocoa-nut oil,
but not many, and if they do, a different process {186} has to be gone
through. The nut, instead of being split open, has the husk cracked on
a sharp pointed stake, it is then torn off and the inside split in two.
Next the kernel is scraped out on an iron scraper, which is attached
to a stool on which the native squats during the operation, and the
white part drops from the scraper into a vessel underneath, and is then
put into a cask to rot, after which it is pounded and made into a pulp
and placed at the end of a tilted trough—a hollowed-out log or old
canoe—until all the oil runs out of it. This oil is then strained and
put into casks.
The stench of a copra boat is proverbial, and this, without the copra
bugs, is enough to make one keep clear of them as much as possible.
Each trader has his copra shed and drying ground, and when Burns
Philp’s trading boats call, the sacks of copra are taken out by the
resident trader’s “boys” and again sold, this time to be shipped home
for further handling. When the oil is extracted in England, nearly
double the quantity is obtained from the same amount of nuts, and the
refuse is made into cakes for cattle.
[Illustration 64: A TRADER RECEIVING COCOA-NUTS, AOBA, NEW HEBRIDES]
When the trading steamers come it is quite an event in the monotonous
life of many of the small traders. Mails and provisions are sought with
an {187} eagerness that is delightful, for when a man has talked
nothing but native languages, and seen nothing but black men for weeks,
these visits are naturally the important event, and a newspaper or two,
if such luxuries can be found, no matter how old, are seized on by
traders as if they were gold.
Copra is practically the only industry that flourishes without
artificial aid. Even that is now being helped along, as the natives see
there is money in it, and some of the thrifty chiefs are making their
men plant the trees and look after them.
Traders and settlers now have plantations of coffee, bananas, and a
few other profitable products, as I have already mentioned, and this
industry is beginning to be successful. Taros and yams are cultivated
by the natives, and require a good deal of attention, and so nearly
all the work is left to the women. Yams vary from about the size of a
small marrow to a much larger affair. The “Chief’s Yam” is pale pink in
colour, and the ordinary ones are like a white mealy potato. In taste
they resemble a cross between an artichoke and a potato. Nearly all
the villages possess a yam-house, which is a sort of platform made of
bamboo with a thatched roof over it; the yams are hung from the top or
lie on the platform to dry. {188}
There is a kind of arrowroot which grows wild in the bush, besides a
few other native vegetables, but the latter are not of much account
unless they are cultivated.
The knowledge of agriculture learned by some of the natives who have
returned from Queensland comes in useful. Sometimes evidences of it are
to be seen here and there, but it is a lamentable fact that they do not
make better use of their opportunities.
Whilst in Queensland they work well, especially the women, and nowadays
there is no difficulty experienced in getting labour from these
islands. When the labour boat calls, the recruiting agent is soon able
to fill his vacancies, and the men he brings back laden with goods make
an excellent bait for others.
When engaging the natives a small quantity of money in advance is, I
believe, paid to them as an inducement to go, and then they sign on
for two, three, or more years to work at the Queensland Sugar Refining
Company’s places at Bundaberg, Mackay, and elsewhere on the Queensland
coast.
When there, they live chiefly in compounds, and seem to enjoy the
change of life. Their chief duties are to cut the sugar-cane, stack
it, and put {189} it on the trolleys, which carry it to the refinery
works.
[Illustration 65: COPRA BOYS OFF TO THE SHORE, NEW HEBRIDES]
The tremendous heat of these fields is beyond description, owing to the
number of the canes.
Many of the natives who have gone for a term of three years become so
fond of the life that they remain on for much longer periods. Many
have been known to petition the Queensland Government to be allowed to
remain in the country altogether. They mix up with natives from all the
islands, and intermarry in quite a friendly way. If by chance a native
of Malekula happened to be left, on his return, in the Solomon islands
by mistake, he would probably be made into mincemeat: but abroad they
get on very well together.
The labour trade in New Guinea was stopped some years ago, partly by
Governor Macgregor, and partly through the natives’ objection to work.
In this trait they resemble the Fijians, and consider work is a form of
slavery and so beneath them.
There is very little real affection between the natives, they part from
one another when going to Queensland with hardly any show of regret.
Sometimes when a woman is going her companions cry, but such scenes are
exceptional.
On their return, however, things are very {190} different, for they
come laden with new and interesting goods and money.
The chief immediately appropriates all the best of these articles, and
by so doing confers a great honour on the home-comer. The returned
one’s relatives then swarm round him, and each takes what he or she
fancies; and the welcoming party, consisting of fellow-tribesmen,
receive their little lot for having welcomed the returned one home.
The remainder of the goods are taken to their owner’s shed, where they
probably remain a few days. Other claimants soon come forward, so that
in less than a week the hut is empty of all save the worker and his
three years’ experience.
In the old days the labour traffic, or “black birding” as it was
called, was one of the most disgraceful trades ever carried on by
British subjects. So bad did it finally get that the Government stepped
in, and warships were kept on the lookout for these slave-traders,
and eventually, after a lengthy period and, strange to say, much
opposition, the labour traffic was made into an honest business.
[Illustration 66: THE “BLACKBIRDERS.” THE LABOUR TRADE IN THE SOLOMONS]
The method adopted by the early kidnappers was to fit out a schooner
in Australia in much the same way as a slave-boat, with a large hold
arranged with tiers of platforms, on which the natives slept {191}
at night. The owners would start out, having secured orders from
the Queensland sugar-planters for so many natives at so much per head,
and with these signed orders they would visit the islands. At first
some of them, according to reports, did try persuasion, and even went
so far as to barter with the chiefs for a certain number of natives,
but if this failed, as it often did, they simply went ashore and
carried off every man or woman they could lay hold of, rowed them out
to the ship, and then literally pitched them into the hold. Others they
would entice on board by offering to give them presents, and when once
on board they never saw the shore again.
During the commission of inquiry into the ways of these slave-dealers
some ghastly facts were brought to light, not only on the part of the
dealers, but also of the planters, particularly in Fiji where many of
the natives were sold. Here it came out that two Englishmen, who were
in the habit of brutally ill-treating the natives, once overstepped the
mark by tying a woman to a tree and thrashing her, and afterwards they
rubbed the juice of the Chili pepper into the wounds. This was quite an
ordinary form of punishment; but when they cut the same woman’s toes
off, the natives banded {192} themselves together, burned down the
whole plantation, and killed the planters’ children. The two planters,
sad to relate, escaped.
But those days are passed now, and the planters are very different men,
and live their lives in peace and tranquillity, and many of them treat
the natives so well that they will do anything for them.
[Illustration 67: A YAM SHED ON THE ISLAND OF TIERRA ESPIRITU SANTO,
NEW HEBRIDES]
{193}
CHAPTER XIX
A short sketch of the missionary work in the South Seas—Concerning
John Williams, James Chalmers, and others.
I can do no better than conclude this short sketch of the three most
important groups of the South Sea islands by touching on the work and
lives of those brave fellows the missionaries, who have left all the
comforts of their English homes—their best friends and everything else
that was dear to them—to teach the gospel of their Master and bring
peace and happiness to these wild savages.
It is an easy thing to sneer at these “Gospel punchers” as they are so
often called “out west.” But in spite of all the little things against
them, one cannot help asking: Is it not through the work of the best of
them that we are to-day able to go amongst these savages?
The most bigoted unbeliever if he thinks, and if he knows the sort of
lives that many of these pioneers have led, must acknowledge their
bravery, {194} even if he doubts their beneficial influence; but only
the most ignorant could do that.
Mercenary reasons have always been assigned to account for the
presence of the missionary in savage lands and all over the world,
and particularly in New Zealand, one hears tales of the way the early
missionaries piled up the gold. In Australia the same stories are told,
but there was little in these savage South Sea islands to attract the
seeker for gold at the time missionaries first began their work, for
whatever they made would be at such a risk that it would not be worth
their while.
In Australia and New Zealand, of course, there is a difference, in the
latter place particularly, for there the Maoris were owners of large
tracts of valuable land, and, undoubtedly, one or two of the lukewarm
missionaries were tempted and fell.
One story I was told by an old Maori of a certain missionary is worth
relating, as his acts rather upset the work of many honest men who were
really trying to do good to these noble savages.
“Your clergyman be all right,” said the old man, when I mentioned
missionary work. “He teach us about God, but He too greedy. He want all
the Maori got.” {195}
“Nonsense,” I said; “who told you that yarn?”
A smile went round the little crowd as the old man glanced at his
friends. “Mr. —— he told us to look to God and we looked, while we
looked Mr. —— took our land. Then one day he come to us and he say,
‘God wants more land,’ and we gave him more land. Then some time soon
he came again and he say, ‘God wants cattle to put on the land.’ And we
give him cattle. Then he say, ‘God wants sheep.’ And we give him sheep.
Then long time after he come again and he say, ‘God want money to keep
the cattle and the sheep.’ But we had no money and so we had no more
God.”
It is acts like these, committed by a few of the black sheep, that
have made the bushmen, the cattlemen, and the traders sneer at the
missionary, and in their ignorance they have condemned the whole for a
part.
The trader and the kidnapper of the South Seas have for years fought
tooth and nail against the missionaries, and it is they who have spread
wild tales of the misconduct and strange practices of these noble men.
They had an end in view, as they knew their worst foe was not the
savage but the {196} missionary; it is the missionary who has been the
means of stopping the ghastly trade in black men; it is the missionary
again who has seen that the native was dealt with fairly; and these are
the sins he has committed and can never be forgiven.
As early as 1796 the London Missionary Society, then the Missionary
Society, undertook the work of sending men to these islands in the hope
of winning their inhabitants to better lives. At that time the lives
they were living were as bad, if not worse than those of savage beasts,
and the publication of Captain Cook’s _Voyages_ in these islands
aroused men of Christian feeling, and was the means of the Society
sending out men to Tahiti; most of whom eventually died of sickness or
were butchered by the natives.
For years these men and others worked their hardest against fearful
odds, and for ten years they made little or no progress. Reports show
that in 1813 one Tahitian had become a Christian. But this was the
beginning, and during the next few years progress was as rapid as it
had been slow before. Eventually the king of the island acknowledged
the Christian belief, and set to work to destroy the heathen gods.
[Illustration 68: THE ARTIST’S GUIDE, ON MALEKULA, NEW HEBRIDES]
The adjacent islands were next approached, and {197} the Tahitian
Missionary Society was formed with the avowed object of devoting all
its energies to the conversion of the natives of these islands. Amongst
its teachers the Society had a large body of natives, and it was not
only assisted in this way but financially also by the very men who a
few years before would have nothing to do with it.
Then came one of the greatest of the great men to these islands;
John Williams, who was not only a splendid worker but a magnificent
organiser. He soon had a boat fitted out in which he was able to visit
the adjoining islands; finally confining his labours to New Guinea and
the New Hebrides.
In 1823 Williams discovered Raratonga, an island in the Hervey group,
and he seems to have devoted more of his time to the natives of this
island than any other. It was his island, “dear Raratonga,” as he
always called it. The population of it when he landed he estimated as
about 7000, and in less than a dozen years he wrote of them in the
following way:—
“I cannot forbear drawing a contrast between the state of the
inhabitants when I first visited them, and now in 1834. In 1823 I
found them all heathens, in 1834 they were all professing Christians.
At the former period I found them with idols and {198} Maraes; these
in 1834 were destroyed, and in their stead there were three spacious
and substantial places of Christian worship, in which congregations
amounting to 6000 persons assembled every Sabbath day. I found them
without a written language, and left them reading in their own tongue
the wonderful works of God.”
And again he said—
“In reference to the island generally, it may be observed that the
blessings conveyed to them by Christianity have not been simply of a
spiritual character, but that civilisation and commerce have invariably
followed in her train.”
Succeeding this noble man in the islands were men of fine characters,
the Revs. William Gill, E. W. Krause, and Messrs. Pitman and Buzacott,
and then in 1867 came the man whose sterling good qualities will never
be forgotten—James Chalmers, or “Tamate,” the name by which he was
always known by the natives.
“Tamate” was bred and born in Scotland, and it was there he grew
muscular and learned to love open-air life. Quite as a youth he became
enthusiastic to devote his life to missionary work in savage lands; but
subsequent events, and probably his companions, who were young men keen
on {199} mischief and adventure, helped to make him forget his early
aspirations. In fact, in that splendid biography of his written by
Cuthbert Lennox, it is stated that young Chalmers’ religious ideas went
through a period of uncertainty, and it was not until 1859, when he was
eighteen years of age, that he had occasion to remember his early vow.
It was during a great religious revival, which was bringing in
thousands of converts in Scotland, that Chalmers was persuaded to
attend one of the meetings. This meeting he himself said that he and
his friends had previously determined to do all in their power to
upset. The result of it was that the true James Chalmers was roused,
and from that hour he never wavered in his determination to teach the
gospel to savages.
For years he worked steadily away at his studies, and in 1861 he
was appointed to a position in the Glasgow City Mission. His good
work brought him recognition, and finally he applied to the London
Missionary Society for a position as missionary. The application was
accepted, and Chalmers then went into training and was ordained as a
missionary in 1865. He sailed almost immediately afterwards in the
missionary boat _John Williams II._ for Raratonga island. {200}
Prior to leaving England James Chalmers married, and to his wife he
gives the credit of half the successes of his life. The passage out to
the South Seas was a terrible one, as the following extract shows:—
Whilst still in the English Channel the vessel encountered a terrific
storm, memorable as being that in which the _London_ was lost. Three
passengers were thrown out of their bunks, the pilot was knocked
insensible, the compass binnacle was damaged, the whale-boat was
carried away, and the seamen were constrained to ask the missionaries
to pray for a change of wind. With difficulty the _John Williams II._
made the Portland Roads, and escaped the fate of some twenty-one
vessels which foundered in the storm.
But this was only the beginning of the trials of that journey. Another
storm met them in the Bay of Biscay, and a third one off the Cape of
Good Hope, but they reached Adelaide eventually, and were there able to
rest.
On the 21st of August the missionary ship which was to carry them to
the islands left Sydney, and was in less than a fortnight high and dry
on a reef, but she did not become a total wreck. She was taken back
to Sydney for repair, leaving there again on the 15th of November, to
become a total wreck on the 8th of January; her passengers were landed,
minus all their belongings, on an almost unknown {201} and uninhabited
island. The notorious _Bully Hayes_, however, rescued them from this
spot and took them to Samoa. Eventually James Chalmers and his wife
reached Raratonga safely after a voyage extending over seventeen
months—the passage now takes about six weeks.
“Tamate’s” life in the South Seas was a life of sheer hard work, but
he always felt, and properly so, that he was making headway. At the
beginning of his career at Raratonga he set to work on the young men,
as he thought in them lay the future hopes of the civilisation of the
islands. When one knows the risks he ran in going back into the bush,
where white men were so dreaded that they were often shot on sight, one
cannot help feeling that a special providence was looking after him. He
took no half measures and made few concessions, but went boldly to work
at the start as he intended to go on to the end.
Many of the natives had been in the habit of fancying that the
missionaries were weak men, but in “Tamate” they met one who was their
equal in most things and could beat them at many.
As a sportsman and a man of pluck he immediately won their hearts, in
fact every one who {202} came in contact with him speaks of him as a
Man before all else.
One missionary said at the court in Sydney that, in his dealings with
the natives, he remembered before all else that he was an Englishman,
then a man, and lastly a missionary; but in “Tamate” every one
recognised the Man.
From Raratonga Chalmers worked diligently amongst all the adjacent
islands, and when later he had his yacht he was able to extend his
operations and win many of the worst savages to better ways, and
by joining in with the other missionaries some splendid work was
accomplished. Throughout he saw the need of native teachers, and it
was this branch of the work he set himself to push on, with the result
that now there are native teachers and preachers in every island in the
Pacific.
The chief trouble with which he and other missionaries had to contend
was the climate; the unhealthy districts they had to visit often laid
them up for weeks at a time. Finally Tamate’s wife, after a long and
distracting illness, died and left him broken-hearted, for through all
his difficulties she had been his mainstay. She died at sea on the 25th
of October 1900. Her end was a very sad and disappointing one, as is
shown by a letter Chalmers {203} wrote to one of his friends at the
time. “We had dreamt of a little rest together in a cottage out of
London somewhere, before we crossed the flood. We shall dream no more,
she waits on the other side, as she said ‘I shall be waiting for you
all.’”
It was not long she had to wait either, for on the 7th of April of
the following year James Chalmers was massacred in the Aird River
district, a part of the islands where he was not well known. The
following account of the massacre was written by the Rev. A. E. Hunt,
who accompanied His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony
on a punitive expedition. “The _Niue_ (Chalmers’ yacht) anchored off
Risk Point on the 7th of April, and a crowd of natives came off. As it
was near sunset Tamate gave them some presents, and made signs that
they were to go away and the next day he would visit them ashore. At
daylight the next morning a great crowd of natives came off and crowded
the vessel in every part. They refused to leave, and in order to
induce them to do so Tamate gave Bob, the Captain, orders to give them
presents. Still they refused, and then Tamate said he would go ashore
with them, and he told Tomkins (his right-hand man) to remain on board.
The latter declined and went ashore with Tamate, followed by {204}
a large number of canoes. When they got ashore the whole party were
massacred and their heads cut off. The boat was smashed up, and the
clothing, etc., distributed. All the bodies were distributed and eaten.”
Chalmers evidently felt that his end was coming, though it cannot be
supposed he knew how it would come. A few weeks before his death he
wrote to a friend: “Time shortens, and I have much to do. How grand
it would be to sit down in the midst of work and hear the Master say,
‘Your part is finished, Come.’”
Some time before Chalmers’ death Williams and many other missionaries
were massacred; in fact it is in this way most of them have died, but
their work will always remain as a memento. As Robert Louis Stevenson
said, when bunching the good and bad missionaries together:
“With all their gross blots, with all their deficiency of candour,
honour, and of common sense, the missionaries are the best and most
useful whites in the Pacific.”
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDS.
MAP ACCOMPANYING “THE SAVAGE SOUTH SEAS,” PAINTED BY NORMAN H. HARDY,
DESCRIBED BY E. WAY ELKINGTON, F.R.G.S. (A. AND C. BLACK, LONDON).]
{205}
INDEX
Administrator, an, 8
Adornments, trumpery, 172
Adventurers, 3, 15, 16
Agricultural pursuits, 23
Aird, river, 6
Ancestor warship, 153
Anchor, 66
Anchors, jamming of, 68
Ambryn, 147, 169
Americans, 12
Aoba, 78, 79, 81, 147, 180
Armlets, 42, 51
Arrowroot, 188
Arrows, the, 180
Attack, mode of, 99
Australasian Trading Company, 16
Australia, 11, 12
aboriginal of, 26
Australians, 7
Bamboo, 20
Bananas, 22, 24, 62, 187
Baskets, 176
Beck, Louis, 72
Betel-nut, chewing of, 111
Bibles, 14
“Blackbirding,” 190
Black labour, 10
Blackmailing, 50
Boat, the labour, 188
prow, 178
Bonita, call, 115
fishing, 113
Bougainville, de, 5, 9, 10, 11, 92, 133
Bow and arrow, 133
Bracelets, 157
Bread-fruit trees, 177
British Government, 7
British New Guinea, 6, 8, 26, 30
youth of, 38
British subjects, 12
Brown, Rev. Dr., 64
Buka, 10
Bundaberg, 188
Burial ceremony, 166
Burial ground of the traders, 79, 80
Burns Philp, Messrs, 16, 29, 72, 81, 186
Bush, men of the, 22, 32
Call by bonito, 115
Canoe, 17, 23, 27, 58
buying of, 27
houses, 89
Canoes, big, 178
building of, 26, 60, 176
small, 61
Cannibalism (Sol. Is.), 95
Capes, 49
Ceremonial purposes, 54
Ceremonies, sacred, 34
Ceremony, 38, 43
Chalmers, James, 65, 198, 199, 200
death of, 204
Chester, Mr., 7
Child, carrying of, 35, 36
Children, 32, 36
games of, 33
Cicatrices, 174
raised, 107
Civilisation, 16
Clark, George, 75, 77
death of, 78
Clay, 62
for pottery making, 62
Climate, 4
Climbing fish, 64
Clubs, 28
Cocoa-nut groves, 29
oil of the, 185
palms, 183
Cocoa-nuts, 62
Coffee, 187
“Coming out,” 38
Compounds, 188
Cook, Captain, 5, 11
Cooking, 34, 111
pots, 20
Copra, 183, 185, 187
boat, 186
trade, 185
Costumes, ceremonial, 30
humour of, 173
queer, 49
Crab, van der, 6
Crocodiles, 15, 122
Cures effected, 45
Custom, another, 42
Dance costumes, 49, 52
description of festival, 51
dook-dook, 50
the fish, 49
the funeral, 128
for love-making, 54
the war, 129
Dances, 30, 49
native, 49
Dancing, 31
art of, 38
ground, the, 51
Dancing, skirt, 52
Davis, Rear-Admiral, 99
Death of a husband, 46
visit of, 46
Demits, 156
Dook-dook dance, 50
Douglas, Hon. John, 7
Draughtsmen, 131
Drawings on wood, 132
Droughts, 4
Drum-making, 38
Drums, 39, 51, 158
Drying ground, 186
Dubu, 54
dance for women, 54
house, an old, 66
Dutch, 5, 6
Dynamite fishing, 63, 117
Eade, Dick, 74
Ear-rings, grotesque, 106
Earth oven, 23
Earthenware jars, 23
Education, 13
Efaté, 153, 154, 167, 172
Effigies, 156, 157
Elevera, 17, 21, 24, 26, 27
Emigration scheme, 12
Enemies, 28
England, 12
Equal rights, 8
Erskine, Commodore, 4
Euro, 88
Evanena, 33
Evil spirits, 46, 160
wishing, fear of, 138
Expedition, hunting, head, 28
of Postillion, 6
of Trinton, 6
Explorers, 3
Faces, decorating of, 175
Faith, 168
Fanarita, 101
Feast, 29
Festival dance, description of, 51
Festivals, 30
Fiddle played by mouth, 131
Fiji, 10, 32
Fijians, 25
Fire, 19
producing of, 132
Fish, 62
climbing, 64
dance, 49
spearing of, 63, 118
Fishing, 26, 180
by bonito, 113
with dynamite, 63, 117
by kite, 116
by moonlight, 116
by nets, 62
by spears, 118
for turtles, 181
Florida Island, 102
Flowers, 104
Food, 23, 108
eating of certain, 40
France, 11, 12
“French Jack,” 11, 93
residents, 143
Fresh water, objection to, 151
Frigate bird, 57, 107
Funeral rites, 126
Funerals, 30
Furniture, 18
Games, 34
rough boyish, 34
Germans, 5
Germany, 10
Gill, Rev. William, 198
Girl’s love-letter, 43
Girls, 34
Glasgow City Mission, 199
Gorging, 91
Government House, 17
officials, 17
Granville, 16
Graveyard, 127
Great Britain, 10, 11
Great southern continent, 10
Guadalcana, 9, 92, 101
Guppy, Dr. H. B., 101, 138
Habitations, 20
Haddon, Professor, 41, 43
Hair, 25, 31, 174
arrangement of, 31
bleached, 107
bushy, 38
sale of, 32
Hanuabada, 17, 24, 26
Harbour, 16
Hardy, Mr., 27, 64, 73, 108, 109, 167
Hayes, Bully, 201
Head-hunter, notorious, 98
hunters, 16
hunting, 37, 97, 102
hunting, big expedition, 28
Heads, shaving of, 25
wanted, 102
Hebrides, 144
Heirlooms, 19
H.M.S. _Fly_, 6
H.M.S. _Rattlesnake_, 6
Honolulu, 32
“Hope,” 89, 134
altars, 136
Houses, construction of (Sol. Is.), 86
interiors of the, 149
Human beings, cooking of, 111
Hunting, 22
Hunting pigs, 120
Husband, death of, 46
Huts, 17, 20
building of, 176
interiors of, 87
of skulls, 168
Hutten, Old Harry, 74
Ibitoe, 38, 39, 166
Idols, 157
Immigrants, 9
Industry, the chief, 145
Infanticide, 102
Ingova of Rubiana Lagoon, New Georgia, 90, 98
Ingova, head-hunters of, 98
Ingova’s Euro, 98
house at Rubiana, 89
Isabel, 9, 101
Islas de Salomon, 9
Ivivu, 130
Jammed, 66
Jew’s harp, 130, 131
Kai-kai dish, 110
Kidnapped, 10, 29
Kite fishing, 116
Kolff, Lieutenant, 5
Krause, Rev. E. W., 198
Labour, 29
boat, the, 188
organised, 29
trade in New Guinea, 189
Ladder, 18
Lakatois, 59, 61
construction of, 60
Laws of marriage, 166
Leap-frog, 33
Legends, 137, 176
Leglets, 42
Le Hunte, George Ruthven, Esq., 8
Lion’s head, the, 92
Loafers, 29
Loafing, 31
Loin-cloth of tappa, 174
London Missionary Society, 196, 199
Love, 40, 41
Love charms, 44
Love-making, 37
Lovesick swain, 41
Lying, art of, 28
Macdonald, Mr., 153
Macgregor, Governor, 7, 189
M‘Ilwraith, Sir Thomas, 7
Mackay, 188
Mai, 100, 101
Malayan trepang, 118
Malays, 5
Malekula, 145, 147, 150, 154, 167, 169, 173, 176, 177, 179, 180, 184
Mambare river massacre, the, 75
Mangoes, 65, 66
Man and wife, 43
Maori method of carrying, 36
Maoris of New Zealand, 25, 44, 45, 194
Marriage, 34, 40
laws, 166
preparation for, 31
proposal of, 37
Masks, 49
construction of, 50
hideous design of, 49
Massacred, 204
Massacres, 14, 102
Mats, 18, 150, 175
Medicine men, 139
Meeting, arrangements for the, 42
Mekko district, 49
Men, burying alive of, 145
Meyer, Don Alvaro Mendana de, 9, 11
Mendana de, Islands, 9
Meyers, Dr., 6
Mineral, 3
Mission of the City of Glasgow, 199
Mission House, 17
Missionaries, 3, 7, 14, 65, 193
tales of, 194
Missionary Society of London, 196, 199
Missionary Society of Tahiti, 197
Moonlight fishing, 116
Moresby, Captain, 6
Mother, 35
Motus, 22, 23
Mourners, the chief, 128
Mourning, 30, 46
special dress, 46
universal, 126
Mouth fiddle, 131
Music, ears for, 130
Narak-burners, 164, 165
stones, 164
Native babies, 35
costume, 30
dances, 48
diet, 111
eyesight, 119
inquisitiveness, 26
instrument, 130
police, 8
police clothes and duties, 30
villages, 86
Natives, 15, 21, 23, 168
of New Guinea, 25
swimming, 67
Naturalisation papers, 12
Necklaces, 52
Nets, 117
hand, 117
fishing, 62
New Britain, 13
New Georgia, 95, 107
New Guinea, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 36, 37, 47, 49, 56, 176, 184
divorce, laws of, 43
labour, trade in, 189
natives of, 25, 26, 44
New Hebrides, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 78, 79, 143, 185
settlement in, 143
New Zealand, Maoris of, 25
Nicolas the Greek, 73
Nose-rings, 106
Oil of the cocoa-nut, 185
Opossum, 121
Ornaments, 104
Outrages, 14
Outriggers, 58, 177
Over-gorging, 161
Paint, 175
Palavanua, 88
Pandean pipe, 130
Papuan, 35, 36, 37, 39
boy, coming of age, 38
dandy, 32
Paradise, veritable, 144
Pentecost Island, 179
Petty Sessions Courts, 8
Pig-a-back, 33
ceremonies, 162
hunting of, 120
sacrifices of, 155
Pile dwellings, 86
Pioneer settler, 144
Pitman and Buzacott, Messrs., 198
Planters, 10
Platform, 18, 21
Police, the, 21, 30
magistrate, 8
Port Moresby, 7, 16, 17, 22, 24, 26, 29, 61, 75
Resolution, 148
Vila, 143
Postillion expedition, 6
Pottery, 24, 61, 176
industry, the, 61
making, 26, 34
Pratt, Johnnie, 74
Preferential tariff, 12
Queensland, 7, 188
coast, 188
Government, 4, 78
sugar refining, 188
Quiros, de, 9, 10, 11
Rain-maker, the, 168
making, remarkable, 170
Rano Island, 177, 179
Raratonga, 197, 201
Religion, 124, 155
Resident magistrate, 8
Residents, French, 143
Rubiana, in, 97, 107
Sacedra, Alvaro de, 5
Sacred ideas, 182
stone, 161
Sacrifice, 29
Sacrifices of pig, 155
Sago, 61, 62
St. Christoval, 101
Sale, 32
Samari, 184
Samoa, 10, 32
San Christoval, 9
Santa Anna, 100
Catalina, 91
Cruz, 9
Sanitary arrangements, 151
Sapuna, 100
Savage song, 159
lands, magic in, 44
Savages, 13
Scratchley, Sir Peter, 7
Sea, men of the, 22
Secret rites, 28
Shaving, 107
Shed, 186
Shell-money, 164
necklaces, 105
Shields, 133
Shooting fish, 64
Silent philosophy, 36
Simbo, 127
“Sing-sing” 167
grounds, 157, 158
Skull-huts, 168
Skulls, string of, 37
Slave-dealers, 191
Solomons or New Guinea, 185
Solomon Islands, the, 9, 10, 13, 84, 86, 91, 94, 145
islanders, clothing of, 104
King, 9
Somerville, Lieut. Boyle T., R.N., 129, 167
Song, a savage, 159
Sorcerer, the, 44
South Pacific, 10
Sea Islands, 3, 13, 14
Seas, excitement of, 75
trader, 71
Spaniards, the, 11
Spanish explorers, 10
Spearing fish, 63, 118
Spears, 28
and clubs, 133
Sports, 120
Staple foods, 62
State councils, 8
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 204
Stories, amusing, 78
Streamers, 174
Street, 17
String armlet, 41
Superstition, 22, 39, 44, 45, 88, 115, 137, 163, 170
Superstitions, 14, 15, 23, 40
Surprise attack, 28, 29
Sweet potatoes, 62
Swimmers and divers, born, 32
Swimming natives, 67
Taboo, 88
Tahitian Missionary Society, 197
Taki, 106
“Tamate,” 198, 201
Tambu houses, 90, 91, 92, 152
Tanna Island, 83, 147, 148, 172, 184
Tappa loin-cloth, 174
Taros, 22, 187
“Tartan Jock,” 79, 81
Tattooing, 32, 56, 107, 174
Thatch, 20
Tierra Australis del Espiritu Santo, 11
Tight-lacing, 41
Tohunga, 44
Tohunganism, 45
Tools, the, 176
Torres, Luis Vaez de, 5, 10, 11
Straits, 5, 11
Trade beads, 172
Traders, 14, 15, 28, 186
burial-ground, 79, 80
experiences of, 81
of the South Sea, 71
risks of, 72
small, tales of the, 73
Tredacua shells, the, 105
Tree-houses, 21
Tribal wars, 22
Trinton expedition, 6
Trumpery adornments, 172
Tupusuli, 64, 65, 66
Turtle fishing, 181
Twine skirts, 54
Urio Moquru, 45, 46
Vegetable, 3
Verandahs, 21, 22
Veritable paradise, 144
Villages, 149
Volcano, 148
Wallaby, 23
War, weapons of, 132, 179
Western islands, 41
Wild animals, 17
Wild diet, 180
Willey, Dr., 109
Williams, John, 197, 204
Witchcraft, 163
Wives, plurality of, 43
Women, 29, 31
folk, 28
and girls, costumes of, 31
labour of the, 34
married, work of the, 35
workers, 175
young, 25
Worship, places of, 157
Wyllie, Dr., 64
Yacht, saving of, 67
Yams, 22, 24, 62, 187
the chief’s, 187
Yost, Prof. von, 64
THE END
_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Original spelling and grammar have been generally retained, with
some exceptions noted below. Original printed page numbers are shown
like this: {52}. Original small caps and original bold type are now
uppercase. Italics look _like this_. The plates have been moved
from within paragraphs to nearby locations between paragraphs. I
produced the cover image and hereby assign it to the public domain.
Original page images are available from archive.org—search for
“savagesouthseas00elki”.
Page 55. Changed "Lakalois" to "Lakatois".
Illustration 25 caption. Changed “hold more that” to “hold more than”.
Page 164. Changed “it is persumed, over” to “it is presumed, over”.
Page 206. Changed index entry “Efate” to “Efaté”.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Savage South Seas, by Ernest Way Elkington